1980s

  • Yannick Bellon – L’amour nu (1981)

    Drama1981-1990FranceYannick Bellon

    Quote:
    Claire (Marlene Jobert), a bilingual UNESCO interpreter meets Simon (Jean-Michele Folon), an oceanographer at an international conference she is assigned to work (UNESCO’s international headquarters are in Paris). The two are drawn to each other, and romance blossoms. Just as they begin to establish a stable relationship, she discovers that she has breast cancer, and after a few trips to the doctor, she finds out that she needs a mastectomy. Unable to face her new boyfriend with the truth, she breaks off their relationship. As one might expect, no oceanographer worth his salt is going to leave his true love for just any shallow reason.Read More »

  • Georges Lautner – Le professionnel AKA The Professional (1981)

    1981-1990ActionFranceGeorges LautnerThriller

    Synopsis:
    French secret agent Joss Baumont is sent to one of the African countries to kill their president Njala. However, at the last moment the political situation changes and the French secret service turns him in to the African authorities, and he is sentenced to a long-term imprisonment. After the daring escape he returns to France and deliberately informs his former chiefs of his presence promising them to kill Njala who has just arrived to the country with the official visit.Read More »

  • Branko Gapo – Vreme, vodi AKA Times, Waters (1980)

    1971-1980Branko GapoDramaYugoslavia

    The life and times of Petar Chushko and his fellow peasants from the village Sushevo (Droughtville) are inextricably linked to the scarcity of their water supply. With the blessing of their priest, the villagers of Sushevo change the course of the local river and steal the waters of the neighboring village Kamenovo (Stoneville). A fight breaks out between the villages, their priests included. The peasants are brought before a judge for disturbance of the peace. The judge is corrupt enough to pronounce a verdict in favor of those who are prepared to pay more, so the water goes to Kamenovo. Meanwhile, there is no water at all in Sushevo and the villagers refuse to pay the water tax in protest. Read More »

  • Govindan Aravindan – Esthappan AKA Stephen (1980)

    1971-1980ArthouseExperimentalGovindan AravindanIndia

    After Kanchana Seeta (1977), the mythical dimension of Aravindan’s cinema acquires a quasi-real, quasi-mythical character in Esthappan (1980). Esthappan is a mysterious figure, allegedly immortal, in a Christian fishing village in Kerala. An enigmatic figure defying spatiotemporality, like many others in Aravindan’s films, Esthappan resides at the periphery of society. Although a more earthly version of Kummatty (the subject of Aravindan’s previous film), all manner of virtues and magical powers are ascribed to the Christ-like worker of miracles (including printing his own money and drinking whisky without getting drunk).Read More »

  • Peter Del Monte – Etoile AKA Ballet (1989)

    1981-1990FantasyItalyPeter Del MonteThriller

    Synopsis:
    Young American, Claire Hamilton, arrives in Budapest, Hungary to enroll in a prestigious local ballet school. She meets two more Americans there, young Jason Forrest and his enthusiastic old rich uncle, Zio Joshua, who’s attending an art auction. After a visit from a strange woman in black and another young man, Claire becomes inexplicably obsessed with Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet “Swan Lake” and her personality changes so completely that she starts calling herself Natalie and can’t even remember ever meeting Jason. He becomes worried and tries investigating the mysterious man from the school who took Claire in, which puts him in mortal danger. However, nothing can prepare him for what he discovers in the bowels of an old opera house where Claire/Natalie is about to perform Tchaikovsky’s spellbinding ballet.Read More »

  • Lamberto Bava – Blastfighter (1984)

    1981-1990ActionCrimeItalyLamberto Bava

    Jake “Tiger” Sharp, a former Georgian police officer has been released from jail, after serving a 8-year sentence for taking the law into his own hands. Tiger decides to return to his hometown Georgia as he tries to live a quiet life and try to escape from his past. But for Tiger, things are about to get very bad. When he gets cruelly taunted by a group of deer poaches who are employed by a man from Hong Kong, who is using the deers they kill to make medicine. But when the poachers rape and kill his long-lost daughter Connie, Tiger looses his rocker. Armed with a arsenal of weaponry, Tiger, with a thirst for vengeance, decides to give the Poacher’s a dose of their own medicine, as he sets out off on a violent rampage, as he blasts the poachers to pieces…Read More »

  • Roman Polanski – Frantic (1988)

    1981-1990CrimeRoman PolanskiThrillerUSA

    Synopsis:
    A doctor and his wife go to Paris for a medical conference. While showering, his wife disappears. His lack of language, and the odd way she disappeared makes it nearly impossible for him to find any official help in his search as he enters the punk/drug culture to find out what has happened to her.Read More »

  • Akio Jissoji – Nami no bon AKA Lanterns on Blue Waters (1983)

    1981-1990Akio JissojiAsianDramaJapan

    This Jissoji starring Chishu Ryu is the story of a Japanese man who went to Maui to work in the sugar cane fields in order to support his family back in Japan. Now retired and still living in Hawaii he is visited by his grandchild who brings him a letter from his disinherited and recently dead 4th son. Lot’s of conflicting feelings about him having stayed in America during the war. Have a box of tissues handy. This was a made for TV movie.Read More »

  • Stere Gulea – Morometii AKA The Moromete Family (1987)

    1981-1990ArthouseDramaRomaniaStere Gulea

    The story of a family. Problems, marriage, taxes, revenge, friendship, army, life and much more…

    Quote:
    The movie is a portray of the inhabitants of an ordinary Romanian village,before the beginning of ww2.A dramatic story about poverty and ignorance..People ready to sacrifice their family members for a little more welfare.Sadness,misery.All seen through the eyes of a man less brutified than the others,a man who realizes his misery and tries to overcome it. It is a brutal and in the same time sensitive introspection in simple people’s life,a naked portray of their existence and inner battles.I don’t know if foreigners will find the story interesting or just repulsive but I can’t help calling it a masterpiece.The Moromete family could have been my grandparents.Read More »

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